By Mike Wright
Summer is usually the most anticipated time of the year. People plan their summertime fun vacations or create off-time to engage in activities usually foreign to other times of the year. It’s a time for taking road trips, or, if you live in Florida, you can sit tight and be visited by northern relatives making their road trips to see you.
Personally, I would like to take a long train trip, something other than a mystery dinner theater excursion. My brother and I traveled from Tampa to Cincinnati many decades ago when we were just young whippersnappers, and it was quite an adventure. My wife Joy and I would like to go on another summertime cruise while we’re still young.
One highlight of our very first cruise was a formal dinner at a round table, seated with strangers, as we expanded our horizons beyond just us and the two friends we traveled with. People began a discussion of their cruise histories: “this is our seventh cruise,” “this is our tenth,” etc. I chimed in, “This is our first time, and we’re loving it!” A lady with a thick accent yelled to her husband across the table: “Hey Murray! We got a coupla voygins sitting heah!” Gentle mealtime teasing aside, it turned out to be the most relaxing 10 days of our lives, comparable to getting deep neuro-muscular massages.
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Of all the activities available on that ship, the one we most enjoyed was the art auction. We took home a fair number of paintings, most of which we sold recently to help pay for acupuncture sessions for Joy.
I personally love it at sea, looking in all directions and seeing nothing but horizon, is quite humbling, making one feel small and insignificant. It was nicer than being in the Navy since we weren’t being fired upon, nor were we firing at anyone else. (I know the torpedo rumor was unfounded, because I started it.)
This summertime, what could be almost as relaxing would be going back to nature and taking a nice, affordable summertime canoe trip down a Florida river teeming with otters, wading birds and other wildlife. I’d make sure Joy was wearing a full life vest, since she now has so much titanium in her she would sink straight to the bottom otherwise. As with the cruise, we would not be firing at anyone nor be fired upon since we’re not paddling in Georgia with banjos playing in the background.
If you have unique cruise memories, share them with Mike at micwrighthamo@gmail.com.
